ILOILO City – A resident of Barangay South San Jose, Molo district, slain Atty. Edeljulio Romero was known for handling high-profile drug cases.
On July 15, 2016 he and client Melvin Odicta Sr., whom the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency tagged as a drug lord, turned themselves in to then Iloilo City Police Office (ICPO) intelligence chief Superintendent Salvador Dagoon and denied involvement in illegal drugs.
After a custodial debriefing and filing of personal data and other documents, they were released.
On Oct. 2, 2016 a little over a month after Odicta was gunned down on Aug. 29 by unidentified armed men in Malay, Aklan, the Molo district police station in Iloilo City listed Romero as its No. 4 high-value target in the campaign against illegal drugs.
The lawyer voluntarily surrendered his M16 rifle, a .45 IMBEL pistol and a .9mm Taurus pistol. He had since silently faded in Iloilo City.
In an interview as early as February 2008 Romero had denied involvement in illegal drugs. He said he was serving as legal counsel of Odicta’s taxi business and that he had known the businessman only since 2004.
Romero said he was confronted by then Justice secretary Raul Gonzalez Sr. regarding his alleged involvement in illegal drugs trade and he denied it outright.
Gonzalez had claimed to have obtained dossiers of personalities linked to illegal drugs but never publicly disclosed its content.
In the May 2010 elections, Romero ran for Iloilo City councilor as an independent candidate but lost.
In a radio interview introducing himself to voters, he said he took up Bachelor of Science in Biology in college in the hope of becoming a doctor of medicine.
After graduating from college, however, he decided to take up Law because his family did not have enough funds for medical school, said Romero.
He luckily passed the Bar exam, he added.
It was not only drug cases that Romero handled. He also took controversial murder and homicide cases.
One of these was on the assassination of Vice Mayor Ramon Rojas of Ajuy, Iloilo in May 2008. Romero was the lawyer of businessman Vicente “Etik” Espinosa who denied having anything to do with the killing.
Romero was also the lawyer of Odicta’s taxi driver Rodney de los Reyes who shot dead Dumangas, Iloilo election officer Raymund Valera at an intersection in Molo on Nov. 8, 2015.
Romero’s house in Barangay South San Jose, Molo was lobbed with a grenade in Jan. 26, 2011.
Policemen recovered a portion of an M203 grenade launcher and parts of a fragmentation grenade.
Yesterday afternoon, a gunman shot dead Romero in Barangay Culasi, Roxas City a day after attending the court hearing of a drug-accused client in that city on Thursday./PN
